De Puniet Speechless After â€˜Worst Race of his Lifeâ€

Randy de Puniet was lost for words after what he described as the “worst race in his life” as torrential rain made life difficult for the MotoGP field at Silverstone.

The Pramac Ducati rider spent most of the race toiling at the back of the field alongside the Mapre Aspar Ducati of Hector Barbera, and suffered the ignominy of being lapped by race winner Casey Stoner.

“Today was the worst race in my life”, he commented. It’s difficult for me to explain this bad day, which began with a bad crash during warm up. I lacked feeling with the bike because of the usual problem with the front. Then it was difficult to stay up in these conditions. I came close to crashing at least two times a lap. I don’t say anything. It was a horrible race”.

Teammate Loris Capirossi also struggled with a lack of feeling with the front tyre his problem. With so few riders finishing, the Italian did at least make it into the top ten and admitted he was purely focused on survival.

“Compared to yesterday, the situation didn't improve. It was important for us to finish the race, but I had a really hard time because I lacked feeling with the front end. I wasn't able to make the front tyre work, and I was close to falling every time I leaned over, even putting my feet down. I was only thinking about finishing the race. The weather also made things really difficult for us. It was very cold, and it was hard for me to ride the bike. For now, anyway, we're even having trouble in dry conditions. It's a shame, because I surely could have done better.”

Fabiano Sterlacchini, Technical Director of Pramac Racing, admitted the result was unacceptable, with both riders over two minutes off the lead, and is determined to make improvements as soon as possible.

“Today's race was extremely difficult. Above all, for the weather conditions; the rain made things hard, and so did the asphalt temperature. The fact remains that we can't be satisfied with our performance. Randy's race was too conservative, even if that's understandable after this morning's crash. He's coming off of five races in which he only finished one. Loris could have given something more, but after having a couple of risky moments he decided to back off.”

“The main problem is with the bike's setup. We can't allow such big gaps, especially compared to the other Desmosedicis. We must try to get some ideas from Hayden and understand what's not right on our Ducati, even if it's clear that we're not the only ones having problems. It's also strange that when we work in extreme conditions, we're never able to do our best. We'll try to find a solution to these problems as soon as possible.”